About

Me
The site
Dedications
Rubi the mascot
Geek code
Contact
$(whoami)
My name is Ruben Schade, though I’ve been called Reuben Shade, Robbin Shuffle, and ReneΓ© Schultz. HOW!? I’m into retrocomputing, writing in coffee shops, anime, and reading stuff about things. My beautiful girlfriend Clara and I live for travelling, bubble tea, and drinking bubble tea while travelling.
I make a living as a technical writer and solution architect for an IaaS company in Sydney and San Francisco, but I grew up in Singapore where I developed a taste for well-funded infrastructure, lah. I’m also working up the guts to do more speaking and attend more industry events, especially for the fine BSD operating system family.
Rubenerd has been my unfortunate Internet handle since I was 13; at the time I thought it was a clever concatenation. Now I think it’s delightfully self-deprecating, like my last name in German. Bagus! Wait.
OrionVM, where I work
The FreeBSD operating system
The NetBSD operating system
Wiktionary entry on my last name Schade
The site
This is my weblog and podcast of things that have interested me since high school in 2004. It started as a silly hobby, but it’s become a way to meet friends, get work, be flamed, and how a cool person like yourself could cross my path. I’m grateful.
I publish an RSS feed for blog posts, and just for the podcast you can subscribe to. I have an FAQ and Omake with more details.
In 2023 I began experimenting with Gemini-style links. I think they’re easier to read than inline links, and should make polyglot markup between Gemini and HTML easier in the future.
My Omake outline of everything
Site RSS feed
Podcast RSS feed
Dedications
This site is dedicated to the memory of these lovely people:
-
Debra Schade, my mum and best friend who encouraged me to write and keep a journal, the advice that has set me up for life.
-
Jim Kloss, the proprietor of Whole Wheat Radio who proved you could be in IT with kindness and a conscience.
Rubi the mascot

Rubi is the site’s mascot, conceived by Clara. Her mismatching, Miku-esque boots allude to my predilection for not wearing matching socks.
(Funny story, I was chided for wearing orange and red socks during a high school work experience day, with the implication that I wasn’t taking the assignment seriously. I’ve refused to ever since).
We agreed that Rubi was born in Sapporo on her birthday. Her favourite foods are shiroi koibito biscuits and curry udon, washed down with matcha and copious amounts of black coffee. These are burned off by trips to indoor pools and nature hiking in the snowy Hokkaido wilderness. She enjoys reading, cosplaying, and slice-of-life anime that may or may not have robots. Her dream is to start a line of self-heating swimsuits and towels, and tactical cargo skirts with pockets that can actually fit modern smartphones.
Geek code
-----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK-----
Version: 3.1
GIT/TW d+ s+:-- a C+++ UBL++++$ P+++>++++ L+ E---
W+++ N+ !o? K-? w--$ O+ M++$ V PS+ PE- Y+ PGP+ t++
5+ X+ R tv b++ DI-- D G+ e++ h r++>+++ y+
------END GEEK CODE BLOCK------
Contact me
Thanks for taking an interest in my stuff. You can email me below:
printf "%s@%s.%s\n" me rubenschade com
Or catch me on the following sites. Cheers :)
Codeberg
FreeBSD Wiki
Mastodon, on the BSD.Network
Pinboard
Twitter
Wikipedia